My Little Redhead
by Robinton
Summary: James Potter has already fallen in love with his own little redhead, Lily. He has determined that he can get her to love him, he can change, he can be a good guy, but can he succeed? Most likly yes, but it should be fun to watch and see how he does it.
1. Waking Up, It's Hard Sometimes

_Waking Up, It's Hard Sometimes  
_

_Every evening I go to sleep, and I wonder how I managed to get through the day without holding her, without kissing her, without being with her every moment of every day. Every night I lie awake, and all I can think of is her._

_She is everything to me, and every day is better than the last. I wish that she will always be near me, I wish that she was mine, one day she will be._

Thoughts drifted through James Potter's head, unbidden yet not unwelcome as he lay awake at night once again, staring at the ceiling. Tomorrow he would see Lily once again, tomorrow was the beginning of a whole new year at Hogwarts, maybe he could get through it without acting like a total prat.

It was another year, like any other. "It can't be like the others though," whispered James into the night air.

James pulled the blankets up over his shoulders and stared over the clutter of his desk and beyond his owl's cage, out the window at the stars in the night sky. He stared, and he thought, and he drifted down to sleep.

James woke up the next morning to the sounds of Sirius bounding down the stairs and into his room. "School!" yelled Sirius. James simply moaned in reply and rolled over on his side, shielding his face from the light and his body from Sirius. However, Sirius seemed to take this as an invitation to conjure a large jug of water on top of James' head, and then jump on his bed until the water spilled all over him.

"AHHH, Sirius, I'm gonna kill you, grow up you little puppy," James roared. "Why do you want to go to school anyway?"

"Well, I personally enjoy the academic opportunities that the educational system provides, including what I like to call the three B's: broads, butterbeer, and Birman."

"Birman?"

"The Birman twins, Angelica and Tiffany"

"Why am I surprised?" James groaned.

"No Clue."

"Fine, I'm coming." James hoisted himself off of the bed and got dressed, "So, do you want to go get our school stuff?"

"Sounds like a plan. Didn't the letters come a while ago?"

"Yeah, I think that they're on my desk somewhere."

Sirius walked over to the desk and pulled out the letters. He tossed James' letter to him and then walked over to the owl cage perched on the other side of the desk. "Hey Petrarch," he said to the eagle owl inside, "Can you take this to Sarah?" he asked, indicating the equipment list from his restaurant. Petrarch hooted in reply and grabbed the letter in his talons before flying off.

By the time that Sirius had turned around James had gotten dressed and pocketed his letter. "Lemme see the new badge," demanded Sirius, "They always come up with a new design for the Quidditch Captains."

James pulled out his letter and spilled its contents out into his hand. Nestled beside the red and gold of the Quidditch Captain's badge was the Silver and Gold of…

"Head Boy!" crooned Sirius. "Why?"

"No Clue," said James.

"I would have thought Remus."

"Yeah, but you can never tell with Dumbledore."

"True enough, you want to go?"

"After you," quipped James, and both Friends spun on their heels and apparated into the Leaky Cauldron.

The Leakey Cauldron was an old pub that always seemed to be filled with people and either attended by the innkeeper Tom or his young niece Sarah. She was there when James and Sirius apparated, wiping down the bar. Even in the early hours there were quite a few people but James and Sirius managed to find a couple of stools near the bar on which to sit.

"Hey Sarah," Sirius grinned, "you get the things?"

"Haven't had the chance," Sarah replied. She was a young woman who had recently graduated from Hogwarts. During her school days she and Sirius had maintained a periodic and…athletic…relationship. She had long, dark hair that fell halfway down her back and stunning blue eyes. She also had a variety of other assets of which Sirius was particularly appreciative. "How about you have some breakfast while I pick up your stuff." Like food. "It was pretty slick of you to have me do your shopping for you. Perfect way to get out of even a modicum of hard work."

"Well," began Sirius, "I pride myself on my clever ways to get out of hard work. After all, we can't have the new head boy working up a sweat."

* * *

**A/N:** I'm back...kinda. I wrote this for me own redhead. Well, actually her hair is a little more of an auburn color. Either way, wonderful. Anywho...have fun.  



	2. Trains

_Trains_

Sirius and James finished breakfast, grabbed their stuff from Sarah, and after a hurried goodbye between Sirius and Sarah that nevertheless stretched on for several minutes, they apparated to King's Cross.

The pair apparated behind a newspaper stand, right into a mass of people. An old muggle woman screamed in fright, surprised at the sudden appearance of two young men in her path. James and Sirius laughed and crossed the street, into the station. When they reached platform 9 ¾, James and Sirius were greeted with the roar of noise that always seemed to accompany the wizarding community.

"I'll go find us a compartment," said Sirius slyly, looking at a pretty girl, waving from the train's window. Sirius took off at high speed, presumably to find a compartment, a nice private compartment in which to snog that girl senseless.

"Right, compartment," replied James.

"James!" called a voice from the crowd.

"Remus," greeted James, smiling at the slightly shabby looking wizard running towards him.

"Hey," said Remus, "don't feel bad about getting head boy over me or anything, I talked to Dumbledore about it."

"Why did I get it?" asked James.

"Well, the problem is that I have led a pretty quiet life up until now, haven't attracted too much undue attention."

"Are you kidding? You hang out with me and Sirius, everyone knows you, even if you do try to hide your face in a book."

"That's not the issue. The problem is that _The Prophet_ always does a little expose on the Head Boy and Girl. It tends to just be a mention, you know, unless they turn up anything interesting."

"And you do have that furry little problem," said James, catching on.

"Yeah," said Remus, "so no worries, Dumbledore said that he would give me a letter of recommendation for anything if I needed it, and in all honesty I'm happier."

"Why?" laughed James, "Don't you want the glory."

"Sure," said Remus, "but that doesn't mean that I want to do the work. Anyway, don't you have to go to the head's compartment or something?"

"I have no clue; I've never really been a prefect or anything."

"It should have told you what to do in your letter," said Remus.

"Right," replied James. James took out his letter and pulled out a second piece of parchment that read,

_Potter Proof Instructions_

_Wear the badge._

_Go to the Head's compartment when you get to the train._

_Yes, right when you get to the train, not an hour into the journey._

_Yes, you have to go on the train ,no apparating like last year_

_Or brooms like the year before that_

_Please keep flirting with the prefects to a minimum, at least during meetings._

_For the love of Merlin, do not snog people in meetings_

_don't be too unfair towards the Slytherins, I understand that it is you, but there is a limit_

_Sincerely,_

_Albus Dumbledore_

"Well," laughed Remus, "he certainly knows who he's dealing with. Now go off to your compartment, and take care not to; what was it?" he glanced down at the letter, "snog too many people in meetings."

"Yeah huh," replied James sullenly, "Talk to you later Moony."

"See you Prongs."

James walked over to the train and ascended the steps with a sense of forboding. For years, James had railed against the system, he had fought against "The Wizard." There would be a lot of people who would never allow James to live it down that he had become another cog and the magical industrial complex. "Oh well," sighed James to himself, "it's not as if I can help anything."

James strolled along the train, passing compartments that were full of laughing students, happy to see their friends again. He turned into a door labeled, "Heads," to see, "Lily!" called James.

"Potter," replied Lily sharply, "what are you doing in here?"

"Oh, right," said James sheepishly. He fished around in his pocket to retrieve the Head Boy badge and pinned it to his shirt.

"What!" exclaimed Lily. "Your head? What about Remus?"

"Long story," said James. He starred at her, the girl of his dreams. Long red hair flowed down her back and over her shoulders; framing her face and making her look precisely angelic. Absolutely startling green eyes starred back at him, and a slightly amused smile that drew her absolutely luscious lips back across gorgeous, white teeth. The only thing that James could find fault in was her attire. Even the billowy school robes didn't completely hide her gorgeous form, but they weren't exactly ideal. "Oh, I'm supposed to be in my uniform by now aren't I?"

"Yup."

"Fine," said James, a slightly amused smile on his face. He flicked his wand his trunk appeared in the middle of the compartment. He then stripped off his shirt and his pants and threw on the school robes. Then, with another flick of his wand the trunk disappeared again.

"Potter!" cried Lily.

"James," he corrected.

"Fine, James, didn't you realize that I was here?"

"Oh, come off it, It's not like I was naked or anything."

"Close to it," replied Lily.

"Oh, you noticed that too," said James with a smirk.

Lily wasn't really complaining all too much, its not that he was unattractive or anything. In fact, he was actually fairly handsome, but it was the principle of the matter. The boy ought to have a little more decorum. However, that didn't stop a little voice in the back of her head form applauding. "So," began James, breaking into Lily's thoughts, "what exactly are we supposed to be doing?"

"We're waiting for everyone to get onto the train, once that happens then the prefects will assemble in their compartment, and we can go to greet them. We will have a prefect meeting, and then we will have some time to ourselves. Of course, we will have to patrol the train, but don't worry about it too much."

"Sounds good, what do we do up until then?"

"It doesn't really matter, talk I guess."

"Well then, talk away."

Lily rolled her eyes at him and then stared at him for a moment, as if sizing him up. "Do you think that you can handle it? The responsibility I mean. You can't go and do any of your pranks now that you are head boy."

"Me, I have never done any pranks."

"Psh, you and those friends of yours…" Lily began, but James cut her off.

"I am afraid that I can not substantiate any of the rumors that have arisen throughout my time at Hogwarts. Filch may say that me and several of my fellow classmates were involved in a series of what could be called, "pranks."

"Say?"

"I have been falsely accused but not convicted of anything."

"Are you kidding? You have been convicted of more things than anyone could remember. You must have served months in detention of the years. It seems that you are always either on the Quidditch pitch or in Filth's office."

"It may be true that I've been in detention, but it has always been for trivial things."

"Like what?"

"Like being out of bed," James casually replied.

"Doing what?"

"Filling the Slytherin hourglass in the great hall with Cockroach Cluster…allegedly," said James with a grin.

Lily just rolled her eyes at him. "We're getting away from my question, are you going to act a little more mature this year?"

"Yes," said James.

"How so?" asked Lily.

"Not sure yet," said James. Lily rolled her eyes once again and James laughed at her expression. Just then a young prefect knocked on the door. "Come in," called James.

"We're ready," said the young boy.

"Brilliant," said Lily, "We'll be there in a minute."

"Okay," said the Ravenclaw.

James and Lily made sure that their robes were in order and that their badges were straight, and walked into the prefect's compartment. It was a pretty small room for the number of people who were meeting in it as most of the other prefects were stationed in other compartments, but it would have to do. "So, for those of you that do not know me I am James Potter and this," he said, pointing to Lily, "I the beautiful, vivacious, lovely, and extremely sexy Lily Evans." Lily hit him on the arm and James laughed, "Well, it's possible that she may not be that forgiving, but the rest still stands."

"As prefects you will be expected to hold yourself to a higher standard," said Lily. "You may not have the time to socialize as you once did and you may have to exert a little more effort to keep up with your studies on top of your prefect's duties. However, you are all up to the task. Now, we will go over your duties at the castle at a different time, but rest assured that you will be fully informed, as to the train, do not worry too much. You must patrol the train at regular intervals to make sure that there is nothing going on that would be too dangerous. However, you are really only there so that people think that you are a presence. Do not worry about what you will do if you find someone breaking a rule, they won't. You can let little things slide but if you DO catch someone breaking a large rule, come and tell either me or James."

"Don't worry about it," said James. "The fact is that few people will break a rule on the train. The first years won't do anything at all as they are still too nervous about actually going to school. The Second and Third years are still too worries about getting caught and reprimanded by a Prefect. As for the rest of them, most of them are too lazy to make too much trouble on the train; they're saving it for school."

"Okay, said Lily, "That is pretty much everything for now. I look forward to working with you all throughout the school year. If you have any questions feel free to find me or James."

Throughout Lily's speech James didn't listen to a word that she said. Which was too bad, because he probably could have used a review of the rules, but how was he supposed to concentrate with her in the room? She was just too pretty to allow for cognizant thought. James followed Lily back into their own compartment where they sat talking for the rest of the journey about everything and anything.

James starred out the window as the train rattled on, this was going to be a better year.


	3. Chapter 3

_Smiles_

The train pulled into Hogsmeade station amongst pouring rain. Fog and rain, James didn't expect anything else from Hogwarts, it would be a disappointment.

Everyone began to get off the train, eager for the start of term feast, but James didn't move. He had to stay on the train to oversee the unloading of luggage with the prefects and Lily, not that he was complaining about spending time with Lily, but couldn't they do it somewhere warm? He glanced across the compartment to see Lily curled up on the seat with a book beside her, sound asleep.

James stood up and crossed the compartment to her side. He placed a hand on her cheek and spoke softly into her ear, "Lils, its time to go, we're at Hogwarts now." Lily gave a kind of sleepy moan and tried to rollover and go back to sleep. "Lily," said James, "Lily." James shook his head, smiling, she must have been tired. He put his hand on her knee and whispered into her ear, "Lily, I'm going to inch my hand up your thigh until you are awake enough to tell me to stop."

He got about three inches up her skirt before she shook herself awake enough to yell, "James! I'm awake, I'm awake." He took his hand off her thigh, laughing like crazy.

"Its not funny," she said, smiling. And it was true, she thought to herself, it wasn't funny. It may have been nice, and pleasant, and breathtaking, and amazing, and very near orgasmic, no, he would have had to go a little further for that—Damn, why didn't he go a little further—No, why did I think that?—Isn't it obvious?—But I don't want that—part of you does—Yes, but NO! Needless to say, Lily was a tad confused at that moment, but she was quick to cover it up with a cough.

"Are you okay?" asked James. "Do you need some water or something?" Lily shook her head and James shrugged. That was a particularly odd reaction, thought James, he had either expected her to swoon or to hit him, coughing wasn't exactly one of the choices.

The pair finished getting their things in order and went outside of the train to supervise the unloading of the trunks. Lily stepped outside of the door first and immediately began to get wet. James smiled to himself and conjured a bright purple umbrella; he plucked it out of the air and pulled Lily into his arms. "What?" gasped Lily. James just looked up towards the umbrella and gave her a wry grin. "Oh," replied Lily, "Well, thank you."

"No worries," whispered James.

The station was a riot of activity with prefects running all about, getting in the way more than anything, acting officious, and a large number of house elves who were levitating the student's things onto large carts to be towed up to the school. "Hey, prefects, over here!" yelled James, and the teenagers scurried over to him. "Give the house elves a rest, they know what they are doing. You are here to supervise, nothing else."

"How can they know what they're doing, they're servants," drawled a Slytherin from the back of the crowd.

"No," responded James, "they are not your servants. The house elves are employees of Hogwarts and I would hope that you would show them some respect. They have done this before and will be doing this long after you graduate, so do not speak to them as if they were inferior."

"But they are," said the Slytherin.

"Well, if you think that," said James with a grin, "than I'm sure that you think that you could do without them."

"Of course," responded the Slytherin promptly.

"Well then," said James, "I think that it would be fitting if you learned what you are talking about. Therefore, you will not have access to the services of the House Elves for the next two weeks. Does that sound good Lily?"

"Fine," said Lily coolly.

"No problem," said the Slytherin.

"So feel free to wash your clothes, cook your food, and clean your dormitory yourself," said James.

"Fine."

"Without Magic."

"WHAT!" yelled the Slytherin. "But house elves get to use Magic."

"Yes, but house elves are also polite and courteous. You are not, so I figured that I needed to balance out the playing field." The Slytherin glared at him but James just shrugged it off.

"Can I talk to you for a minute James?" asked Lily.

"Sure," said James.

"Privately."

"Oh," said James, and he followed Lily back into the train and into one of the compartments. "You do realize that people are going to talk, after all, it was kinda obvious that you just wanted me alone so…"

Lily smacked him. "Why did you do that?" Lily hissed.

"I sure as hell do not tolerate intolerance, from anyone, especially a prefect. I thought that the prefects were supposed to be a little more above that kind of thing, a little more enlightened, a little less like the general population. Why did you hit me?"

"Are you sure that it wasn't because he is a Slytherin!"

"Yes!"

"James!"

"Yes," he said softer. "Lily, trust me, please," he whispered.

"I do," she said, looking into his eyes. "I'm sorry," she said quietly, "I shouldn't have…"

"No worries," said James, pulling her into a hug. She smiled into his shoulder as he held her. "No worries," said James again in an almost silent whisper. He tucked her head underneath his chin and smiled.


End file.
